Tag: Carrera 4S

This will be a rare feature for us, but like with most 911s I’m always curious to see colors and color combinations that I don’t come across often. With the 996, because of their generally lower appreciation among 911 fans, coming across those diamonds in the rough proves more rewarding since it provides an opportunity for an interesting 911 – something that will stand apart from the crowd (and there are a lot of 996s out there) – while still paying relatively reasonable prices. The one we have here, a Dark Teal Metallic 2004 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet with just 22,700 miles on it, would rank as the top-of-the-line non-Turbo 911 of its day yet now commands an asking price just under $40K. Even if not the prettiest 911s around that’s still fantastic bang for the buck. Following the trend that began with the M491 package in the mid-80s, the 4S basically is a 996TT in body and suspension, but with the standard naturally-aspirated 3.6 liter flat-six. So you don’t get quite as much power as the Turbo, but the appearance, stopping power and cornering are all on par and with 320 horses on tap the straight-line performance is still plenty attention grabbing.

I’m always curious when colors change within a marque, especially when they are colors that I particularly like. Here we have an Iris Blue 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, located in Indiana, with 39,975 miles on it. Iris Blue is a color that we’re fairly familiar with here as it’s been seen on the 3.2 Carrera quite a few times. It’s a really nice shade of blue that veers to the lighter end of the spectrum and one of my favorites available during that time. As should be quite clear, the shade of Iris Blue available for the 993 was quite different, no longer a light blue, but now a dark blue that shows hints of purple when under direct light. The pictures here bear that out fairly well. The full name of the color is Iris Blue Pearl and it is that pearl effect that gives the color is shifting possibilities. I will admit, as someone who loves the original version of the color, that it looks stunning here and seems to work particularly well on the curves of the 993.

These days we’re so used to Porsche producing a plethora of different 911 models that if you can’t find one to suit your needs then you might just be too picky. Or never really wanted a 911 to begin with. A quick trip over to Porsche’s website shows sixteen different variants of the 911 from which buyers can choose and if rear-engine isn’t your thing there are also four different Cayman models. This sort of selection has not always been the case. The 964 began the expansion of model variety, but it was with the 993 that we really began to see the sort of diversity in the lineup we see now. One of those models first introduced for the 993 is the model we have here: the Carrera 4S. The Carrera 4 itself first came about with the debut of the 964, but the S models didn’t make an appearance until the 993 took the stage. Like the M491-equipped Carreras of the mid- to late-80s the Carrera 4S effectively served as the Turbo-look model of the 911 line, sharing the bodywork, suspension and braking of the Turbo, though lacking the Turbo’s whale tail and retaining the standard naturally aspirated engine of the rest of the 911 line. The one we see here is a very pretty Guards Red 1997 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, located in New Jersey, with Savannah Beige leather interior and 52,894 miles on it.

The striking Amaranth Violet 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, which we featured almost exactly one year ago, has come back up for sale from a new seller. As one of the much more rare shades we ever see there is sure to be a good deal of interest here, but whether it can find a new buyer we shall have to wait and see. It’s wearing different wheels now than in its previous auction and still sports a few modifications so it isn’t as original as some collectors might hope, but the color is one you’ll almost never come across. Purple isn’t the most popular color on a car, but it really does look mighty good here.

The below post originally appeared on our site May 25, 2015:

Porsche’s pastel blues are some of my favorite of any manufacturer. They are almost beyond vibrant and provide a sense of life to any 911 that takes the dynamic capabilities of the machine and expands through color. Cars stimulate all of the senses other than taste and a heightening our visual sense of any car is bound to either repel some or completely intoxicate others. Most any pastel color will do that – I really don’t think there’s a middle-ground with these colors – and my favorites are blue and orange, both of which Porsche does well. We see them very rarely and this is one of the few non-GT 997s I’ve come across in such a color. The seller has stated that this is Pure Speedster Blue, which is not a color I’ve heard of but since it’s stated to be paint-to-sample that isn’t uncommon. Regardless, it’s along the lines of Mexico Blue and Riviera Blue, two shades that were offered in very limited runs in the ’70s and ’90s respectively. I love them and on this 2006 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S you get modern refinement and mechanicals, but with a vintage color.

On Saturday we featured a very nice Black Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Wide Body and the car we see here is more or less the evolution of that machine. While the 993 Carrera 4S is not quite as rare as the Wide Body 964 it does possess a couple advantages for those purely in pursuit of their driving pleasure. First, and this is entirely subjective, I think it is better looking. I have always found the wider rear on the 993 to be a perfect complement to the curvier 993 body, whereas on the 964 I actually prefer the narrow body over the wide body. Your mileage may vary. The second advantage is less subjective. The 964 Wide Body was for appearances only, while the Carrera 4S returned to the full Turbo-look of the M491 package and added the suspension and braking of the Turbo. So you’re getting a little more than just the wider rear. From a collector standpoint the 993 seems a little more valuable these days and as the last of the air-cooled 911s it may remain so, but both should do well. The example we see here is a Grand Prix White 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, located in Arizona, with a nicely contrasted Cashmere/Black interior and 80,320 miles on it.

Tuned cars from the 1980s were never particularly discrete, nor were they cheap or easy to come by. Tuners like Treser, in an effort to get more power out of the notoriously non-tunable CIS injection system that adorned nearly all German cars in the 1980s, got creative by taking a 928 fuel distributor for the V8 motor and sticking it on the inline-5 turbo unit. Others, like AMG, took the biggest motor they could build and stuck that into a bunch of different cars. Ruf turned up the boost on the 911 range by moving the turbocharged flat-6 into narrow-body cars. But none of this came cheaply, nor were these tuned cars always the most reliable. When it came to the period of electronic fuel injection, though, things started to change. The first chip-tuned cars also had some bad habits; my father’s chipping 944 Turbo, for example, runs quite rich and if you engage the cruise control, the computer believes you want to go 170 m.p.h. and plants the throttle wide open. But they’ve become increasingly reliable and almost a given; plus they’re cheap. On a car like my 1.8T Passat, you can get a reflash of the ECU with programmable modes for around $500; it can be done in just a few moments, and adds somewhere in the vicinity of 50 horsepower and 80 lb.ft of torque. As such, if you really want to go wild in a tuned car these days, simply changing the ECU to a hotter map isn’t enough. No, if you’re someone like Ruf, you’re still pushing the bounds – or, perhaps, compressing them:

Generally speaking when it comes to Porsche’s 996 our focus falls predominantly on the 996 Turbo. For a wide variety of reasons the 996 remains an unloved example from the Porsche stable, but the value to be found from the 996TT is too hard for almost anyone to pass up. We’re going to take a look at a different model from the range today, one that provides a lot of similarities to the Turbo itself, though obviously lacking a little bit in power: a Meridian Metallic 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S located in California with 20,180 miles on it. Relative to most of its naturally-aspirated siblings the Carrera 4S provides significant advantages and, coming from near the end of the 996 model run, alleviates some of the reliability concerns that plagued the early 3.4 liter flat-six with which the model debuted. This particular example also comes with a few interesting options out of the Porsche Exclusive catalog that help it stand apart. From the outside most won’t be able to distinguish it from a standard C4S in Silver, but once we step inside the differences become more apparent. It’s been equipped with a full Cinnamon leather interior complete with leather-wrapped rollbar in the rear (I think I would just go ahead and remove the rear seats though since even the most nimble Cirque du soleil performer will find entry rather difficult). To complement those sporting pretensions this C4S also came with the powerkit, raising power to 345 hp, with both the sport suspension and a Brembo big brake package helping to keep everything under control. All together it’s a nice list of optional extras and aftermarket add-ons that help take this 996 to the next level and make the most of its performance value.

We’re going to step into some deeper, and uncharted, waters with this car. The Carrera 4S, and its slimmer sibling the Carrera S, have shown nice increases in value lately as presumably collectors begin to snatch up what they feel will be the most likely examples to show significant long-term appreciation. The example we see here, a Speed Yellow 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, located in Massachusetts, with a mere 2,330 miles on it, is sure to sit near the top of the pile for any of these cars. The Turbo and RS will always stand within their own sphere of the market, but for what is otherwise a fairly standard car, mileage and color have a significant impact on value and this one has those in spades. The downside, of course, is that you can’t drive it. As in, almost never. That surely will turn some people off, but I would feel pretty confident that the owner of a 911 like this probably can afford something to put to proper use.

I have been enjoying my romp through the Porsche paint spectrum and I will continue with that theme with today’s car. Love or hate these colors, I think we can all agree that Porsche does an excellent job of keeping interesting options available to allow customers to set their cars apart from the many silver, black, white, and red vehicles of the world. On the air-cooled market these cars can be particularly noteworthy. This brings us to the car we see here, another paint-to-sample color that certainly will not appeal to everyone, but which we so rarely will ever come across: an Amaranth Violet 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, located in Maryland, with 43,000 miles on it. Like the last paint-to-sample car I featured the original buyer selected a previously available color for this Carrera so there should be a sticker to verify the color itself. Any shade of purple is rare on a car and its variants make up some of the fewest offerings Porsche has made available. There is one consistent feature amongst them: they are incredibly eye catching. Like with orange, there is almost no subtlety to these cars and draped over the curvy figure of the 993 C4S Amaranth Violet should attract even more attention.

Subscribe to Our Site

Get Our Daily Email With The Latest Finds! Your email will not be sold or spammed, we promise!

Categories

Categories

Browse the Archives

Browse the Archives

Disclaimers

We re-post public classified advertisements. As a practice we rehost images and ad copy to preserve the listing for future reference. If you would like additional attribution for your work, or wish to remove your listing from our site, we are happy to accommodate. Please email us: germancarsforsaleblog@gmail.com

Please note we do not represent these vehicles and our opinion on these cars has no guarantee or warranty. We are not responsible for these items in any way. Estimates on price and values expressed in our posts are solely the opinion of the writers. Thank you for your understanding.